Austin to Consider More Than $95M in Tech Contracts

The Austin City Council is set to consider a series of technology contracts and amendments Thursday worth more than $95 million, including proposed spending on citywide networking and cybersecurity, police records management, analytics, remote access and airport security operations.

The largest item on the Aug. 27 agenda would add $69 million to three existing contracts for Cisco and Meraki products and services and extend them by 19 months. The amendment would bring the combined contract ceiling to $141 million. The contracts are with CDW Government, Insight Public Sector and Presidio Networked Solutions.

City documents say the products and services are used across all departments to improve network efficiency, reduce downtime and support critical operations. Austin has identified $37.8 million in capital funding and about $7 million in operating funding for the amendment, with the remainder dependent on future budgets. The council originally approved the contracts in June 2023.

Another citywide proposal would add $12 million to an existing contract with CDW Government for Palo Alto network security and firewall products and services. The increase would raise that contract’s ceiling to $24.6 million.

City officials said the hardware and software support security infrastructure throughout Austin’s network and that the additional authority would allow the city to upgrade, renew and consolidate products while maintaining IT security and resilience.

Austin Police is in line for a new records management software agreement. The proposed contract with Versaterm Public Safety would run for an initial year with as many as four one-year extensions and would be worth as much as $5.85 million.

The system supports police reporting, investigations, incident and case management, state and federal reporting and data exchanges with the Texas Department of Public Safety. It also supports the department’s Community Report online reporting tool.

The contract would continue software licensing, maintenance, support and cloud hosting while giving the city the option to add other Versaterm products and eventually move the records management environment to a vendor-managed cloud platform. The procurement is designated as a sole-source contract.

Austin Technology Services is seeking separate authority for as much as $4.1 million with Freeit Data Solutions for Citrix remote-access and virtualization software maintenance and support. City documents say the technology provides secure access to virtual applications, cloud services, data centers and business resources and supports continuity of operations. The contract would have an initial one-year term with four possible one-year extensions.

The department is also seeking a five-year contract worth as much as $2.8 million with Vertosoft for MicroStrategy business intelligence and analytics licensing, maintenance and support. Austin uses the platform to collect information from multiple systems, automate reporting and perform data analysis and projections. City documents identify MicroStrategy as the primary reporting and analytics tool used to produce Austin’s annual budget.

Cybersecurity spending on the agenda includes proposals for Austin Aviation and Austin Energy.

Austin Aviation is requesting a contract with Recon InfoSec worth as much as $765,000 for managed security operations. The agreement would provide around-the-clock monitoring, threat detection and incident response for the department and would combine security technologies with cybersecurity personnel. The Airport Advisory Commission recommended the contract Aug. 12 on a 9-0 vote.

The council will consider adding $280,000 to Austin Aviation’s contract for Veeam backup software, which the city uses to protect critical infrastructure, virtual servers, Microsoft 365 data and operational systems. The amendment would bring that contract’s ceiling to $405,000.

Austin Energy, meanwhile, is requesting an additional $476,000 and a six-month extension to its Splunk cybersecurity software contract with GTS Technology Solutions. The amendment would raise the contract ceiling to $1.676 million. Austin Energy uses the software for threat detection, log management, operational intelligence and regulatory compliance monitoring. The Electric Utility Commission recommended the amendment Aug. 10.

The council agenda includes other technology-related purchases and amendments beyond those detailed here, including software and systems supporting Austin Energy, Austin Fire and the Austin Public Library.

The Aug. 27 council meeting begins at 10 a.m. at Austin City Hall. The technology items are listed on the consent agenda.